Business briefs

The board of China Airlines Co (華航) yesterday re-elected chairman Lee Yun-ling (李雲寧), despite market speculation that Christine Tsung (宗才怡), chairwoman of the Grand Hotel (圓山飯店), would get the job. Tsung earned a seat on the airlines' board in May.

Chinese-language media had speculated that the government would ask Tsung to take up the carrier's chairmanship if Lee retired this month.

After the election, Lee thanked the board for their support. He said the carrier has been hit hard by SARS over the last two months.

"So far, the average load factor has reached 80 percent. China Airlines expects to resume full capacity in summer," he said. "Increase of flight frequency and service to new destination are being plotted."

The carrier's president, Philip Wei (魏幸雄), was also reelected for another term yesterday.

Tesco links up with Citibank

Tesco Stores Co Taiwan (特易購), a UK-based hypermarket with four outlets around the country, yesterday linked up with Citibank Taiwan to implement a on-line inquiry service designated to help improve efficiencies in supply chain management and financing service.

"We aim to build a closer relationship with suppliers by providing thorough information to them," David Orchard-Smith, chief executive officer of Tesco Taiwan, said at a press conference.

He said that through the system, Tesco suppliers will be able to monitor financial data online anytime to facilitate the accounting managements.

The Tesco project will be a benchmark for Citibank in provide advanced supply-chain management to the retail-service industry, said Jerry Chen (陳亮丞), head of global transaction services at Citibank Taiwan.

UMC posts mixed sales result

United Microelectronics Corp (聯電) said yesterday that sales last month rose 4.72 percent from a year earlier to NT$7.03 billion (US$204.48 million). The figures, however, were down from NT$7.36 billion in May.

In the first half of the year, the sales of the world's second largest contract microchip maker rose to NT$39.60 billion from NT$30.74 billion a year earlier, the company said.

The second quarter capacity utilization rate was expected to exceed 80 percent, up from 67 percent in the first three months, it said.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manu-facturing Co (台積電) showed a faster growth rate, as it said earlier this week that its sales last month rose 14.27 percent to NT$17.85 billion from NT$15.62 billion a year earlier and were up 6.2 percent from May. In the first half of the year, TSMC's sales increased to NT$89.25 billion from NT$79.97 billion.

Rating unchanged by deal

Standard and Poor's Ratings Ser-vices said yesterday that its ratings on Chinese Petroleum Corp (中油) would not be affected by the company's announcement last Friday that it had secured a contract worth NT$298 billion to supply liquefied natural gas to Taiwan Power Co's (Taipower, 台電) new Tatan thermal plant for 25 years.

"Although Chinese Petroleum's bid was well below Taipower's reference price of NT$400 billion, Chinese Petroleum expects a profit margin of between 7 percent and 10 percent on the contract because the company is able to secure a supply of low-cost LNG from Qatar," S&P said in a statement.

NT dollar hits 10-month high

The New Taiwan dollar had its highest close in 10 months as the currency rose NT$3.0 against the US dollar to close at NT$34.350 on the Taipei foreign exchange market yesterday.